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Introduction

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In 1492 the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean islands—a momentous event in world history. Although Europeans would not realize it for several years, he had accidentally “discovered” the Americas. The Americas are the continents of the Western Hemisphere: North America (which includes Central America and the Caribbean islands) and South America. Europeans called these continents the “New World,” because at the time they were wholly unknown to people of the world’s other continents. This article discusses the European discovery and early exploration of the Americas, including the great era of maritime exploration known as the Age of Discovery or the Age of Exploration. For information on the European settlement of the Americas, seeAmericas, colonization of the.

The first peoples to explore and settle the Americas, however, were not Europeans but the ancestors of the American Indians. These early explorers were members of nomadic hunter-gatherer cultural groups. They moved from Asia to North America during the last ice age, when thick ice sheets covered much of northern North America. As the ice sheets absorbed water, the sea levels dropped and a land bridge emerged along what is now the Bering Strait. From about 30,000 to 12,000 years ago, this land bridge connected northeastern Asia to what is now Alaska. Some peoples came to North America by following the Pacific coast southward. They may have combined walking with boat travel. Others walked across a glacier-free area through the center of what is now Canada.

Continued melting of the ice gradually opened up the land, allowing people to spread out across North America and down into South America. No single person made any large part of the long journey; one group after another continued the march over many centuries. The first Europeans did not arrive in the Americas until many thousands of years later. By that time, the Indians had explored and settled all portions of the “New World.”

Early European Explorers

It is not known for certain when the first Europeans reached the Americas. Legends tell of early visitors from Ireland and Wales. According to an epic tale, St. Brendan and other Irish monks made an astonishing journey westward through the Atlantic Ocean in the 6th century ad. They are said to have reached a large landmass. It has been speculated that this land could have been North America or the Canary Islands. Although St. Brendan was a real person, the tale of his Atlantic journey was likely fiction.

Another legendary traveler, Madog ab Owain Gwynedd of Wales, was said to have reached North America in the 12th century ad. He supposedly sailed to Ireland and then westward. Some people have believed that Madog and his party became the ancestors of a group of American Indians who were said to speak Welsh. However, most anthropologists believe that the story of Madog is not true.

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In the 9th century ad the Vikings of Norway, or the Norsemen, arrived in Iceland, which had already been settled by Irish colonists. Irish refugees from Iceland, fleeing before the advance of the Vikings, may have been the first Europeans to arrive in Greenland and Newfoundland (now in northeastern Canada), though this is mere surmise. Greenland, a large island in the North Atlantic Ocean, is considered part of North America.

The Vikings of Norway are the first Europeans known to have visited North America. A Viking named Gunnbjörn Ulfsson sailed near Greenland in the 10th century ad. The Viking known as Erik the Red (because of his red hair and beard) was the first to colonize the island. In about 980 Erik was banished from Iceland after he killed a neighbor in a quarrel. He decided to spend his exile exploring Greenland. Erik sailed in 982 with his household and livestock and established a colony on the southwest coat of Greenland. During Erik’s three-year exile, the settlers encountered no other people, though they explored to the north.

Erik returned to Iceland in 986. He wanted to persuade the Norse people there to help him colonize the land he had explored, so he gave the icy island a favorable name—Greenland. His descriptions of the territory convinced many people to join a return expedition. By the year 1000 there were an estimated 1,000 Scandinavian settlers in the colony.

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The first Europeans to land on the mainland of North America were the Viking explorer Leif Eriksson and his party. Leif was one of Erik the Red’s sons and had accompanied him to Greenland. The exploits of Erik and Leif are the subjects of Norse sagas, which are stories or histories in prose. According to one of the sagas, a man named Bjarni Herjulfsson was blown off course while sailing from Iceland to Greenland in about the year 1000. He was carried far to the southwest, where he saw an unknown shore, and then returned to tell his tale. Leif Eriksson and about 30 other people set out in 1001 to explore this land. They probably reached the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador (now in northeastern Canada). Modern archaeologists have found evidence of Viking settlements there from about Leif’s time.

The expedition continued southward, reaching a warmer wooded land where “wine berries,” or grapes, grew. They named this place Vinland, meaning “Wine Land,” though the fruit they found may actually have been cranberries. Vinland may have been in what is now Maryland or Virginia, in the southern United States, or perhaps the lands around the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in southeastern Canada.

Leif and the other members of the expedition built houses in Vinland and explored the region before returning to Greenland. Later Viking expeditions tried to establish colonies, but within a few years their trade with the local Indians had turned to warfare. The colonists gave up and returned to Greenland. In about 1013 Erik the Red’s daughter Freydis led an unsuccessful expedition to Vinland. So ended the Norse visits to the Americas as far as the historical record is concerned. Little knowledge of these first discoveries came down to the next European explorers to reach the Americas, hundreds of years later.

The Age of Discovery (or the Age of Exploration)

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Europeans “rediscovered” the Americas during the great period of maritime exploration known as the Age of Discovery, in the 15th and 16th centuries. During this period, Europeans also explored the coasts of Africa, sent ships directly to India and Southeast Asia, and sailed completely around the globe.

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The effects of the Age of Discovery were diverse and profound worldwide. European exploration ushered in globalization—the development of economic and cultural links throughout the world. Europeans conquered and colonized distant lands, establishing vast empires. In the Americas, violent conquest and diseases accidentally brought over by the Europeans killed enormous numbers of Indians. Smallpox, yellow fever, malaria, influenza, and measles were among the diseases spread to the New World. Indian populations further decreased as Europeans forced them to work on plantations and in mines under harsh conditions. Europeans later imported black African slaves to the Americas to replace the Indians as a labor source. Meanwhile, gold and silver poured back to Europe from the mines, enriching European economies.

European exploration led to the exchange of plants, animals, germs, technologies, and ideas across continents, in what is now called the Columbian Exchange (after Christopher Columbus). A significant portion of the crops now used to feed the world’s population originated in the Americas and were spread as a result of the Age of Discovery. Potatoes, corn (maize), tomatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, cassava, cacao (the source of chocolate), hot peppers, peanuts (groundnuts), pineapple, and tobacco were among the crops introduced to Europe, Africa, and Asia from the Americas. New food sources from more productive crops led to population booms in the Old World. Europeans introduced domesticated animals such as horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs to the Americas. The Europeans also brought new crops such as wheat, rice, oats, bananas, olives, sugarcane, and coffee to the Americas and introduced steel and guns. Sugar and cotton began to be produced in great quantities on New World plantations, which led to the creation of sugar processing and cotton textile industries in Europe. In addition, the capitalist system of Europe grew and spread. Missionaries from Europe introduced Christianity far and wide.

Advances Fostering Exploration

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The Viking discoveries were little known to other Europeans of the Middle Ages. Most medieval Europeans were ignorant of other places in the world. Maps of the time generally showed only a broad strip of land and water reaching from Greenland south to the Mediterranean coasts of Europe and Africa and far eastward to China’s Pacific shore.

Several events and developments in the years preceding the Age of Discovery served to increase Europeans’ curiosity about the world. Christians from Europe had been fighting in wars, called the Crusades, in western Asia. The Crusaders had brought wonderful products home from Asia. People were also excited by the story of Marco Polo, which told of his trip to China in the 1200s and the great wonders there.

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Ships called caravels, which were small, light, and quick, came increasingly into use in the early 15th century. They were propelled by sails and were steered by a rudder. Caravels were often equipped with lateen (triangular) sails, rather than square sails. The ancient square sail permitted sailing only before the wind—that is, with the wind generally behind the ship. The lateen sail was a major advance because it allowed the ship to sail close to the direction from which the wind blew.

When explorers began making longer voyages, a ship called the carrack or nao proved better than the caravel. The carrack was a rounder heavier ship, more fitted to cope with ocean winds. It had both square and lateen sails. The carrack also had more room to store provisions for longer journeys as well as the spices and other trade goods the explorers acquired.

Discoveries in the science of the stars—astronomy—helped sailors navigate their ships better. Many people knew that Earth is round. Part of the new knowledge came from the long-forgotten writings of great thinkers of ancient Greece and Rome. This rebirth of interest in ancient learning was called the Renaissance.

The rediscovery of an important ancient Greek work—Ptolemy’s Guide to Geography—greatly increased interest in cartography, the art and science of mapmaking. Developments in printing and engraving helped make maps more widely available. Geographers were also able to make maps more and more accurate, partly because better instruments were being used for astronomical observation and navigation of ships.

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The magnetic compass had reached Europe in the 1100s. Within a hundred years or so sea captains learned to rely on it for direction-finding. In addition, navigators began using devices known as the cross-staff and the astrolabe to determine a ship’s latitude (north-south position). Little by little it became safer for sailors to venture into unknown seas. Sailors made discoveries that allowed cartographers to make better maps that showed more of the world; these maps in turn inspired and aided further voyages of exploration.

The Desire for New Trade Routes

European explorers found the New World by mistake; they were not looking to find new continents but new sea routes. Europeans mainly wanted to find better trade routes to China, India, and Southeast Asia. They valued many products from Asia, including cloves, pepper, and other spices that were used to make food taste good and to keep it from spoiling. Also in demand were such luxuries as sheer, colorful silken cloths, rich carpets, and sparkling jewelry. The wealth of the East had been trickling into western Europe mainly by overland routes. Asian merchandise was thus both scarce and expensive in Europe. Goods changed hands many times before they reached the consumer, and at each exchange the cost increased. The merchandise was transported by camel or horse caravans, with each animal carrying only a comparatively small load. Ships could carry goods more cheaply and in greater quantity. The Italian port cities were satisfied with their monopoly of the old trading routes. On the other hand, Portugal, Spain, England, and France wanted to find new sea routes to Asia in order to import goods directly.

The older trading routes were also becoming less useful. While the Mongols controlled a vast empire in China and Central Asia, traders had been able to travel the overland routes safely. Toward the end of the 14th century the empire began to break apart, and Western merchants were no longer assured of safe-conduct along the land routes. In addition, the Ottoman Turks, who were hostile to Christians, were gaining power. They blocked the outlets to the Mediterranean Sea and thus to the ancient sea routes from the East. The Ottomans also effectively closed the land routes.

The Portuguese Find the Eastern Route

Henry the Navigator, prince of Portugal, initiated the first great enterprise of the Age of Discovery—the search for an eastern sea route to China. Although Henry is called “the Navigator,” he did not sail on voyages of discovery; he sponsored them. He had several reasons for promoting exploration. He was curious about the world. He was also interested in new navigational aids and better ship design and was eager to test them. Moreover, Christian Europe was still fighting the Crusades against Islamic powers. Henry hoped to challenge Arab power in North Africa. The desire to establish profitable trade was yet another motive.

The eastern sea route to China involved first sailing south along the west coast of Africa. In the 15th century Portuguese sea captains made ever-lengthening voyages of discovery down this coast. Bartolomeu Dias first reached the cliffs of the Cape of Good Hope at Africa’s southern tip in 1488. In 1497–98 Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape and reached India by sea, successfully finding the eastern route. He brought back a cargo of spices that netted a huge profit. Portugal occupied key cities on the sea lanes between China and the Red Sea. Its wealth became the envy of western Europe. (See alsoEurasia, exploration of; Africa, exploration of.)

Columbus Sails West

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On the morning of Oct. 12, 1492, the master navigator Christopher Columbus stepped ashore on an island in the Americas. The arrival of his ships in the Western Hemisphere was one of the pivotal events in world history. Columbus’ voyages opened the way for European exploration, exploitation, and colonization of the Americas. They also led to the near total annihilation of numerous American Indian cultures. Ironically, Columbus had landed in the New World by accident. He was seeking a western sea route from Europe to Asia. When he sighted land, he believed that he had reached his goal. To the day he died, he still believed that he had reached Asia. Although Columbus was mistaken, he still ranks as a highly skilled navigator and a courageous and persistent explorer. Few other navigators of his time would have dared to sail far west into the unknown, without proof that the winds would allow them to return.

It is not known when the idea originated of sailing west to reach China. Many sailors searched for islands in the west. Educated people knew that the world was round and that the east could be reached by sailing west. To believe, however, that it would be practical to make such a voyage was an entirely different matter. Columbus was one of the most optimistic advocates of the western route. His studies led him to believe that Earth’s circumference was much smaller than it actually is and that Asia extended much farther east than it does. He believed that Asia lay only a few thousand miles west of Europe, across the open sea.

Columbus was probably originally from Genoa, Italy. In about 1476 he settled in Lisbon, Portugal. He and his brother worked as mapmakers there, but Columbus was mainly a seagoing businessman. He sailed to Ireland, Iceland, and a Portuguese settlement in West Africa, gaining knowledge of Portuguese navigation and the Atlantic wind systems.

In 1484 Columbus first began seeking support from King John II of Portugal for a voyage west to Asia. He was not able to convince the king that his idea was worth backing. Columbus next tried to obtain sponsorship from France and England. By 1486 he was in Spain, asking for patronage from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. After at least two rejections, he at last obtained their support in January 1492. They probably argued that the cost of equipping the expedition would not be very great. If it failed, the loss could be borne. If the expedition should succeed, however, the gain would be enormous—it might divert to Spain all the wealth of Asia.

Ferdinand and Isabella also hoped that such an enterprise would gain them greater status in Europe, especially against their main rival, Portugal. Then, in alliance with the pope, they might hope to take the lead in the Christian war against Islamic powers. Spanish soldiers had just recaptured the last foothold of the Muslim Moors in Spain earlier that month. Columbus himself hoped to amass riches for his family and to join the ranks of the nobility of Spain. Ferdinand and Isabella promised that if he succeeded, he would be made “Admiral of the Ocean Sea” and that he would receive 10 percent of any profit. Columbus and later his descendants would be appointed the governor of any lands he discovered. Columbus was also a devout Christian, and he hoped that his voyage would lead to the conversion of the Chinese to Christianity.

The historic first voyage

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On his first voyage, Columbus took three ships and a total crew of about 90 Spaniards. The Niña and the Pinta were small, speedy caravels. Vicente Pinzón commanded the Niña, while his brother Martín Pinzón was captain of the Pinta. Columbus commanded the Santa María, the flagship. At about 117 feet (36 meters) long, it was more than twice the size of the caravels. The Santa María was probably a carrack, or nao. Some of the funding for the voyage came from the Spanish monarchs. A group of Italian bankers in Seville, Spain, also contributed a large sum of money.

The little fleet set sail from Palos, Spain, on Aug. 3, 1492. Columbus’ navigational genius showed itself immediately. The fleet sailed southward to the Canary Islands, off the northwest African mainland, rather than sailing due west to the islands of the Azores. The westerlies (winds blowing from the west) prevail in the Azores. These winds had defeated previous attempts to sail to the west. In the Canaries the three ships could pick up the northeast trade winds. Supposedly, they could trust to the westerlies for their return.

Only three days out of Palos, the Pinta lost its rudder. The Spaniards repaired the ship in the Canary Islands and set sail again on September 9. Steady trade winds from the northeast drove them on their course due west. As they sailed westward, Columbus kept two records of progress. One was the distance he thought they had actually traveled. The other was a much shorter estimate that he showed the crew to quiet their fears at being so far from home.

For the most part the passage was smooth and the winds were steady. As the days passed, however, the men could not see how they could sail home against winds that had blown them steadily west. On October 8 and 9 the men were ready to rebel. Columbus said that he would turn back if land was not sighted within three days. They found land just in time. On the night of October 11, Columbus thought he saw lights in the distance. At 2 am on October 12, Rodrigo de Triana, a seaman aboard the Pinta, cried loudly the first sight of land. The voyage from the Canaries had taken 33 days.

The small Spanish fleet had unknowingly reached not Asia but the Caribbean islands that are now The Bahamas. The islands are part of North America, lying between Florida on the U.S. mainland and the island of Cuba. Columbus named the first land that the expedition sighted San Salvador. This island may have been the one now called San Salvador or perhaps Samana Cay. The expedition landed and was met by a group of Taino people. Carrying the royal banners of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Spaniards took possession of San Salvador for Spain.

The Taino were friendly and helpful to the Spaniards. Columbus believed that he had reached the “Indies”—East and Southeast Asia. He thus called the people he encountered there Indians. The Caribbean islands are today known as the West Indies, to distinguish them from the East Indies of Asia.

Sailing on with Indian guides, Columbus stopped at islands he named Santa María de la Concepción (now Rum Cay), Fernandina (Long Island), and Isabela (Crooked Island). He then sailed south to Cuba, reaching its north coast on October 28. He thought that Cuba might be Japan, but he later convinced himself that it was actually the Chinese mainland.

Everywhere the Spaniards asked the Indians where gold could be found. On Dec. 6, 1492, the explorers reached an island called Ayti (Haiti) by its Taino inhabitants. On December 6, Columbus renamed the island Hispaniola (now divided politically into Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Previously he had found small trinkets of gold, but on Hispaniola he found at least enough gold and prosperity to save him from ridicule on his return to Spain.

On December 25 the Santa María ran aground off the north coast of Hispaniola and had to be abandoned. From its timber Columbus built a small fort, La Navidad, with the help of a Taino chief named Guacanagarí. The Spaniards left 39 crewmen behind at La Navidad as colonists.

On Jan. 16, 1493, the Niña and the Pinta began the return voyage. They carried gold, colorful parrots, other strange animals and plants, spices, and some Indian cloth and ornaments. They also carried several Indians, whom they had captured to show to Ferdinand and Isabella. The journey back was a nightmare. The westerlies did indeed direct the ships homeward. In mid-February, however, a terrible storm engulfed the fleet, and the ships were separated. Columbus, on the damaged Niña, eventually limped to port in Lisbon for repairs. The Pinta made port at the Spanish town of Bayona, to the north of Portugal. With repairs completed, Columbus set sail, reaching Palos on March 15, 1493. Ferdinand and Isabella welcomed Columbus at Barcelona, Spain, with great honor. All the titles and privileges promised to him were confirmed.

Later voyages

The wealth and human captives that Columbus displayed for the Spanish rulers convinced all of the need for a rapid second voyage. Columbus, now an admiral, was at the height of his glory. He led at least 17 ships out from Cádiz, Spain, on Sept. 25, 1493. The ships carried about 1,500 men and supplies to enable them to found permanent colonies. The expedition also included a group of friars, who hoped to convert the Indians to Christianity.

Sailing again via the Canary Islands, the fleet took a more southerly course than on the first voyage. The Spaniards reached Dominica in the Lesser Antilles on November 3. After sighting the Virgin Islands, they arrived at Hispaniola on November 23. There they found that La Navidad had been burned and the 39 men slain. The Spaniards started a new colony, named La Isabela for the queen. Columbus then explored the coasts of Jamaica, Cuba, and Hispaniola. Doubts seem to have arisen among some of the Spaniards as to the identity of the islands. In June 1494 Columbus forced his men to swear a declaration that Cuba was indeed the Chinese mainland. The following year he began to conquer Hispaniola, spreading devastation among the Taino. The Spaniards forced many of them to work in gold mines and shipped others to Spain as slaves. Columbus left his brothers in charge of La Isabela and returned to Spain, arriving at Cádiz on June 11, 1496.

Columbus set out on his third voyage with a smaller fleet of six ships on May 30, 1498. He planned to explore to the south of his earlier discoveries and hoped to find a strait from Cuba to India. After stopping at Trinidad, he entered the Gulf of Paria and planted the Spanish flag on what is now Venezuela, in South America. He realized that the great torrents of freshwater flowing into the Gulf of Paria meant that he had discovered another continent. But of course he did not find a strait to India.

When Columbus returned to Hispaniola, he discovered that both the Taino and the European colonists resented the rule of his brothers. Dissatisfied colonists had complained to the Spanish rulers. A new governor was sent to replace Columbus. He arrested Columbus and his brothers and shipped them back to Spain in chains. Ferdinand and Isabella released the brothers but did not reappoint Columbus governor.

Columbus’ fourth and final expedition was the most disappointing and unlucky of all his voyages. He set sail on May 9, 1502, with only a small fleet of four ships. The Spanish rulers had by then lost much of their confidence in him. He explored the coast of Jamaica, the southern shore of Cuba, and the east coast of Central America, searching for gold and a strait to India. The fleet lost two ships. The two remaining ships, in poor condition, ran aground on Jamaica in June 1503. Columbus sent messengers by canoe to Hispaniola, but the governor was in no hurry to send help. Meanwhile, Columbus correctly predicted an eclipse of the Moon from his astronomical tables, thereby frightening the local peoples into providing food for the Spaniards. Rescue ships from Hispaniola finally arrived in June 1504.

The admiral returned to Spain broken in health and spirit. He was not received at court, and the king refused to restore his privileges and honors. He was, however, far from poor.

Over the hundreds of years since Columbus sailed to the Americas, there has been a major shift in how he has been perceived. In the older perspective, Columbus has been celebrated by people of European descent as a hero for “discovering” the Americas. His four voyages to the New World were the means of bringing great wealth to Spain and other European countries and of opening up the Americas to European settlement. More recent approaches have emphasized the destructive effects of his voyages. They stress the disastrous impact of the slave trade and the ravages of the diseases the Europeans accidentally brought with them on the peoples of the Americas.

Spain and Portugal Divide Up the New World

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When Columbus first returned to Spain, the Portuguese claimed that he had merely visited a part of their dominion of Guinea in Africa. Spain and Portugal asked the pope to settle the dispute. He complied in 1493 by drawing an arbitrary north-south Line of Demarcation. This imaginary line lay about 320 miles (515 kilometers) west of the Cape Verde Islands. Spain was given exclusive rights to all newly discovered and undiscovered lands in the region west of the line. Portuguese expeditions were to keep to the east of the line. Neither power was to occupy any territory already in the hands of a Christian ruler.

King John II of Portugal was dissatisfied with the pope’s decision. Under the new rule, the Portuguese would not even have sufficient room at sea for their African voyages. In 1494 Spain and Portugal negotiated a treaty that moved the Line of Demarcation to about 1,185 miles (1,900 kilometers) west of the Cape Verde Islands. The pope eventually sanctioned the change. However, no other European country facing the Atlantic ever accepted this line.

The new Line of Demarcation allowed Portugal to claim a significant prize in the New World—Brazil. On March 9, 1500, the Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral set sail from Lisbon for India, intending to follow the route around Africa taken by Vasco da Gama. To avoid the calms off the Gulf of Guinea, Cabral bore so far to the west that on April 22, 1500, he sighted the Brazilian coast. He took formal possession of the land for Portugal and then set off for India.

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News of Cabral’s landing in Brazil aroused great enthusiasm among the Portuguese. The king began to sponsor major transatlantic explorations, including that of the Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci. Vespucci had already completed an expedition in 1499–1500 for Spain, as navigator of a fleet under the command of Alonso de Ojeda. On that mission, Vespucci arrived in Guyana and then turned south to Brazil. He is believed to have discovered the mouth of the Amazon River. On the way back he reached Trinidad, sighted the mouth of the Orinoco River, and then made for Haiti. Vespucci thought that he had sailed along the coast of an eastern peninsula of Asia.

Vespucci led an expedition for Portugal in 1501–02. His small fleet sailed along the coast of Brazil and for the first time estimated the extent of the land. Calendar in hand, he named different points on the coast after the Christian saints on whose days they were discovered. The extent of this voyage is disputed, but Vespucci claimed to have continued southward. He may have discovered the Río de la Plata, an estuary between what are now Uruguay and Argentina.

Vespucci and also scholars became convinced for the first time that the newly discovered lands were not part of Asia but a “New World.” Vespucci wrote a lively and embellished description of this New World that became quite popular. In 1507 Martin Waldseemüller, a German scholar, suggested in a pamphlet that the new land be named America after him. (His name in Latin is Americus Vespucius.) The name caught on and brought Vespucci an honor that many feel he did not deserve. The name America originally was applied only to South America, but the term soon was extended to include North America.

Magellan’s Ship Circles the Globe

Spain claimed that the Line of Demarcation extended around the globe, but no one knew where it fell in the Eastern Hemisphere. A Portuguese captain named Ferdinand Magellan believed there might be a water passage through South America that would lead to Asia. He presented his idea to the king of Spain, Charles I (later the Holy Roman emperor Charles V). Magellan convinced the king that the richest lands in the East—including the Spice Islands (now the Moluccas of Indonesia)—lay in the region reserved for Spain by the Line of Demarcation. The king commissioned Magellan to find a western route to Asia.

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Spanish officials furnished five small ships for the expedition. Magellan’s flagship, the Trinidad, had as consorts the San Antonio, the Concepción, the Victoria, and the Santiago. The ships were old ones, not in the best condition or fitted as Magellan would have liked. They carried a crew of about 250 men, mostly Spaniards. The fleet left Sanlúcar de Barrameda, in southwestern Spain, on Sept. 20, 1519.

The ships reached the Canary Islands on Sept. 26, 1519, and set sail on October 3 for Brazil. They then sailed southward along the east coast of South America. The expedition explored the estuary of the Río de la Plata in the vain hope that it might prove to be a strait leading to the Pacific Ocean. The ships continued southward along the coast of Patagonia, in what is now Argentina, in search of a strait.

Eventually, with the weather worsening, Magellan decided that the expedition would spend the winter on land. Winter quarters were established at Port St. Julian, in southern Argentina. There, Spanish captains led a serious mutiny against the Portuguese commander. With resolution, ruthlessness, and daring, Magellan quelled it. He executed one of the rebellious captains. He left another of the captains ashore when, on Aug. 24, 1520, the fleet left St. Julian.

On October 21, Magellan at last found a strait leading westward. This channel, which is now named the Strait of Magellan, lies between the southern tip of mainland South America and the island of Tierra del Fuego. The strait proved to be an extremely difficult one: it was long, deep, tortuous, rock-walled, and bedeviled by icy squalls and dense fogs. It was a miracle that three of the five ships got through its 325-mile (525-kilometer) length. After 38 days, they sailed out into the open ocean. At the news that the ocean had been sighted, the iron-willed Magellan reportedly broke down and cried with joy.

Once away from land, the ocean seemed calm enough. Magellan consequently named it the Pacific, meaning “peaceable.” The Pacific, however, proved to be of vast extent. For 14 weeks the little ships sailed on a northwesterly course without encountering land. Short of food and water, the sailors ate sawdust mixed with putrid ship’s biscuits and what few rats they could catch. They finally resorted to chewing the leather parts of their gear to keep themselves alive. Many of the men fell seriously ill with scurvy. At last, on March 6, 1521, exhausted and in poor health, they landed at the island of Guam. They were the first Europeans to have crossed the Pacific.

In Guam they obtained fresh food for the first time in 99 days. They left a few days later, steering west-southwestward to the Philippines. There, Magellan secured the first alliance for Spain with a leader in the Pacific. At Cebu Island the expedition converted the island’s ruler to Christianity. Weeks later, however, Magellan was killed in a fight with the people of nearby Mactan Island.

The survivors, in two ships, sailed on to the Moluccas, where the expedition obtained large amounts of valuable spices. One ship attempted, but failed, to return across the Pacific. The remaining ship, the Victoria, sailed alone across the Indian Ocean. It was commanded by the Spanish navigator Juan Sebastián del Cano. The ship rounded the Cape of Good Hope and arrived at Seville on Sept. 9, 1522. After a voyage of slightly more than three years, it had circled the globe. Besides Cano, the surviving crew consisted of only 17 Europeans and a small number of Moluccans. The spices they brought back more than paid for the expenses of the voyage.

Magellan was undoubtedly one of the most skilled sailors of the great age of European maritime discoveries. Although he died before the completion of the voyage, he did circumnavigate, or sail round, the world. He did not encompass the globe on a single trip, however. On a previous eastbound voyage to the East Indies, he had gone farther east than the Philippines. Thus, at the time he was killed, he had already overlapped his earlier course.

It is fitting to consider Magellan and Cano’s circumnavigation as marking the close of the Age of Discovery. Magellan and his men proved that Columbus had discovered a New World and not the route to China. They also demonstrated that this New World was separated from Asia by a vast ocean.

Latin America

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According to the Line of Demarcation, Spain was left in control of most of the New World. Spanish conquerors, known as conquistadores, soon began to explore and take control of the region that is now Latin America. This region includes Mexico, Central America, South America, and the islands of the West Indies in the Caribbean. Because the Spaniards colonized much of this vast region, most of its people today speak Spanish.

The earliest Spanish settlements were in the West Indies. With Columbus’ arrival there, the Caribbean Sea was essentially transformed into a Spanish lake. Settlement by the Spanish concentrated on the islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and above all Hispaniola. The first permanent Spanish settlement in the Americas was established at Santo Domingo, on Hispaniola, in 1496. Santo Domingo rapidly became the “mother of settlement” in Latin America. From this city, major Spanish expeditions of conquest and settlement set out. The Spaniards found gold, silver, and precious stones and enslaved the Indians. Ambitious men became governors of conquered lands. Missionaries brought a new religion to the Indians.

Balboa Reaches the Pacific

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The first European to look upon the Pacific Ocean from the shores of the New World was Vasco Núñez de Balboa. The Spanish adventurer and explorer sailed for America in 1500 and settled in Santo Domingo. There his unsuccessful attempts at farming led him into debt. In 1510, hoping to escape his creditors, he stowed away on a ship. The ship carried an expedition bound for the new colony of San Sebastián on the mainland of South America, in what is now Colombia.

When the expedition arrived at San Sebastián, it was discovered that the colony’s founder had fled and abandoned the survivors. Balboa persuaded his superiors to transfer the colony to the region of Darién, in the Isthmus of Panama. There they founded Santa María de la Antigua, the first stable European settlement in Central America. Balboa eventually gained command of the colony.

Balboa meanwhile had organized a series of expeditions into the Indian chiefdoms of the area to hunt for gold and slaves. From the Indians, he learned of a great ocean beyond the mountains and of a province rich in gold. The gold was perhaps a reference to the riches of the Inca Empire. Balboa sent word to Spain that he needed reinforcements to explore the area. In Spain an expedition was organized, but Balboa was not given command. The king instead sent Pedro Arias Dávila as commander and as governor of Darién.

Balboa had already set out, however, without waiting for reinforcements. On Sept. 1, 1513, he sailed to the narrowest part of the isthmus. It took about 25 days for his party of 190 Spaniards and hundreds of Indians to cross 45 miles (70 kilometers) of dense jungle. On Sept. 25 (or 27), 1513, Balboa climbed to the peak of a mountain, from which he first sighted the Pacific Ocean. A few days later, the expedition reached the shores of the Pacific, which Balboa called the South Sea. He took possession of the ocean and all lands washed by it in the name of the Spanish monarch.

Cortés Conquers the Aztec of Mexico

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The Spanish dream of finding great riches in America was realized when Hernán Cortés (or Cortéz) conquered the Aztec Empire in 1519–21. The Aztec ruled a great civilization of some 5 to 6 million people in what is now central and southern Mexico. Their capital, Tenochtitlán, was one of the largest cities in the world. The Spaniards were impressed by the city’s grandeur. Nevertheless, they methodically destroyed Tenochtitlán. On its ruins they built Mexico City.

Cortés arrived in the New World when he was about 19. For several years he worked as a farmer and a public official in Hispaniola. In 1511 he sailed under Diego Velázquez to help conquer Cuba.

In 1518 Velázquez sent his nephew Juan de Grijalba to explore the Yucatán Peninsula. Setting sail from Cuba with four ships and about 200 men, Grijalba became the first European to set foot on what is now Mexican soil. He and his men mapped rivers and discovered Cozumel Island. During their explorations, the men heard tales of a rich civilization in the interior. They eventually met with representatives of the Aztec.

Grijalba returned to Cuba with news of the cities and precious metals of the Aztec. Velázquez was furious that his nephew had made no attempt at settlement, though Grijalba’s orders had been to explore only. As a result, Grijalba was passed over and the job of colonization was given to Cortés.

Velázquez soon suspected Cortés of ambitions beyond his orders, however, and canceled his expedition. Cortés nevertheless assembled men and equipment and set out without permission. He sailed for the coast of Yucatán on Feb. 18, 1519, with 11 ships, 508 soldiers, about 100 sailors, and 16 horses. In March he landed at what is now the Mexican state of Tabasco. Cortés stayed for a time in order to gain intelligence from the local Indians. He won them over and received presents from them, including 20 women. Among them was Malintzin, to whom he gave the Spanish name Marina. She became his lover, interpreter, and adviser. The success of his ventures was often directly due to her guidance.

Cortés sailed to another spot on the southeastern Mexican coast and founded Veracruz there. Then, to prevent all thought of retreat, he burned his ships. Leaving a small force on the coast, Cortés led the remainder of his men into the interior. In his dealings with the local Indians, he relied sometimes on force and sometimes on establishing friendly relations. The key to his subsequent conquests lay in the political crisis within the Aztec Empire. Many of the people who had been subjugated by the Aztec bitterly resented them. Taking advantage of this situation, Cortés began making allies with Indians who wanted the Aztec to fall. He ultimately made more than 200,000 Indian allies.

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On Nov. 8, 1519, Cortés reached Tenochtitlán with his small Spanish force and about 1,000 Indian allies. In accordance with the diplomatic customs of the region, the Aztec ruler, Montezuma II, received him graciously. However, the Spaniards soon seized Montezuma.

Meanwhile Velázquez had sent soldiers to arrest Cortés and bring him back to Cuba. Cortés defeated this army at Veracruz and enlisted most of the survivors under his banner. He returned to the Aztec capital in December 1520. After subduing the neighboring territories, he laid siege to the city itself, conquering it street by street. Its capture was completed on Aug. 13, 1521. This victory marked the fall of the Aztec Empire. Cortés had become the absolute ruler of a huge territory extending from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean.

Pizarro Conquers the Inca of Peru

The Spaniards soon conquered another great Indian empire, that of the Inca. The Inca ruled a vast area that extended along the Pacific coast and Andean highlands from what is now northern Ecuador, through Peru and Bolivia, to central Chile. Their capital was at Cuzco (now in Peru). The conquest of the fabulously wealthy Inca Empire by the Spanish adventurer Francisco Pizarro is one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of the New World.

Pizarro was one of the first Spanish captains on the American mainland. After traveling to Hispaniola in 1502, he took part in an expedition to what is now Colombia in 1510. Three years later, he accompanied Balboa on the journey that ended in the “discovery” of the Pacific Ocean. Pizarro accumulated a small fortune as mayor and magistrate of the town of Panamá.

Hearing of a large and wealthy Indian empire to the south, Pizarro enlisted the help of two friends to form an expedition to explore and conquer the land. A soldier named Diego de Almagro provided the equipment and helped lead the expedition. Hernando de Luque, a priest, furnished the funds.

Their first expedition resulted in disaster after two years of suffering and hardship. Only about a third of the men survived. When a second expedition in 1526 fared little better, Pizarro sent Almagro back to Panama for reinforcements. Instead of sending help, however, the governor of Panama sent vessels to bring back the explorers. Pizarro refused to return. He is said to have drawn a line on the ground, inviting all who wanted wealth and glory to step over the line and join him. Thirteen men crossed the line. Pizarro and “the famous thirteen” continued exploring the coast to a land they named Peru.

Pizarro then sailed to Spain to ask the king directly for authority to conquer Peru. This was granted. Pizarro left Spain with four of his half-brothers on Jan. 19, 1530. They sailed from Panama the following year. He had three vessels, fewer than 200 men, and about 40 horses.

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The Spaniards took advantage of a civil war between two factions of Inca that was just ending. Pizarro spent a year conquering the coastal settlements. Then he marched inland to the city of Cajamarca. There he met with emissaries of Atahuallpa, the Inca emperor. Atahuallpa accepted an invitation to visit the Spanish commander, partly because the Spanish force was so small. He arrived attended by a few thousand Inca. Pizarro’s followers, armed with muskets and cannons, were waiting. They seized the Inca emperor and slaughtered his attendants.

As ransom to obtain his freedom, Atahuallpa offered to fill with gold a room 17 by 22 feet (5 by 7 meters) to a point as high as he could reach. Pizarro accepted this immense fortune. He soon had Atahuallpa executed anyway, on Aug. 29, 1533. With news of Atahuallpa’s death, the Inca armies surrounding Cajamarca retreated, and Pizarro progressed toward Cuzco, the royal capital. The Spaniards took possession of Cuzco without a struggle in November 1533. Spanish conquering expeditions soon set forth from Peru in all directions: to what are now Chile and Argentina to the south, Ecuador and Colombia to the north, and even the Amazon region to the east.

The Search for Fabled Riches

Much of the drive to explore and conquer northern South America came from tales of Eldorado—either a fantastically wealthy Indian ruler or a land filled with gold. In the 1530s three expeditions searching for this legendary source of riches arrived in New Granada (now Colombia) from different directions. The leaders of these expeditions were Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada and Sebastián de Benalcázar of Spain and Nikolaus Federmann of Germany.

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Jiménez de Quesada was trained as a lawyer and had no military experience. Nevertheless, he set off from the Caribbean coast of Colombia in 1536 to look for Eldorado and to try to find a land route to Peru. He led an expedition of 900 men up the Magdalena River into the interior of Colombia. After eight months of marching through tropical forests and struggling with hostile Indians, the expedition reached the great central plain of Colombia. This was the land of the Chibcha Indians, a group of tribes that had attained a relatively high state of culture. Although it was not the fabled land of Eldorado, the Chibcha did possess numerous ornaments of gold and jewels. The ruler of the Chibcha fled as Jiménez de Quesada’s army approached, and the conquest of the area appeared to be accomplished. Jiménez de Quesada founded the city of Bogotá in 1538.

Two rival conquerors soon arrived in the area, however, and challenged Jiménez de Quesada’s claim to Colombia. Federmann and his party had set off from the coast of what is now Venezuela and then explored to the south. Benalcázar, who had already conquered Nicaragua and Ecuador, arrived in Colombia from Peru. The three explorers agreed to submit their rival claims to the Spanish king. They sailed to Spain and plead their cases, but the governorship of Colombia was eventually awarded to another man.

Jiménez de Quesada led another expedition in search of Eldorado in 1569, when he was probably in his 70s. With a party of 500 men, he crossed the Andes and explored eastern Colombia. He returned after two years’ wanderings with only 25 of his original company.

Orellana explores the Amazon

Meanwhile, another Spanish expedition had set out in February 1541 to search for a land rich in valuable cinnamon as well as gold. It was led by Gonzalo Pizarro, one of the half-brothers of Francisco Pizarro. With 200 Spaniards, some 4,000 Indians, and numerous horses and other animals, he set out into the unexplored region east of Quito. Food became scarce, however, and Pizarro’s lieutenant, Francisco de Orellana, was sent off in search of provisions. He took a homemade ship and 50 men. Pizarro and his men waited in vain for Orellana’s return. Forced to eat their dogs and horses, they finally staggered back to Quito in August 1542. Only about 80 of the men survived the disastrous expedition.

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Orellana, however, made valuable explorations to the east. He reached the junction of the Napo and Marañón rivers. There, according to some accounts, his men persuaded him of the impossibility of sailing upstream to return to Pizarro. Instead, Orellana became the first European to explore the course of the Amazon River. Drifting with the current, he reached the mouth of the Amazon in August 1542. The party continued to the West Indies and then to Spain. Orellana reported that the Amazon area had hoards of cinnamon and gold. He also told of encounters with tribes led by women warriors who resembled the Amazons of ancient Greek mythology. For this reason, he named the river the Amazon.

Raleigh explores the Orinoco

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The English adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh sought the fabled Eldorado in Venezuela. In 1595 he sailed up the Orinoco River in the heart of Spain’s colonial empire. He did locate some gold deposits, but the English did not support his project for colonizing the area. Back in England, he was accused of plotting to dethrone the king and was imprisoned for some 13 years.

Upon his release, Raleigh still hoped to exploit the wealth of Venezuela, arguing that the country had been ceded to England by its Indian rulers in 1595. With the king’s permission, he financed and led a second expedition there in 1617. He promised to open a gold mine without offending Spain. However, a severe fever prevented him from leading his men upriver. His lieutenant burned a Spanish settlement but found no gold, and Raleigh’s son died in the action. The expedition had not only failed but it had attacked the Spanish. The king of England had Raleigh executed in 1618.

Scientific Exploration

The first European expeditions explored South America mainly to conquer it and to amass wealth. Missionaries who wanted to convert the Indians to Christianity also traversed the continent. In the 18th and 19th centuries many scientific explorers arrived in South America to study its geography, peoples, plants, and animals.

La Condamine

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One of the earliest of these scientific explorers was the French naturalist Charles-Marie de La Condamine. In 1735 he led an expedition of scientists to Ecuador to help determine the precise shape of the Earth (which is not a perfect sphere). The scientists accomplished this by measuring the length near the Equator of a degree of the meridian. Meanwhile, another French expedition took similar measurements in the Arctic. La Condamine and his group surveyed the Andes of Ecuador for several years. He noted the Indians’ production and use of rubber and was the first person to scientifically describe this elastic but tough substance. He sent the first rubber samples to Europe, where the new material was a curiosity.

In 1743 La Condamine conducted the first scientific study of the Amazon River. He traveled from Quito and began a four-month raft journey down the entire length of the river, to its mouth. Along the way, he made scientific observations of the region’s geography and the peoples he encountered. He later published a map of the Amazon and an account of his journey.

Humboldt

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One of the most important scientists to explore South America was Alexander von Humboldt of Germany. His contributions are often called the “scientific discovery of America.” Humboldt became one of the most famous men of Europe during the first half of the 19th century.

In the summer of 1799 Humboldt set sail from Marseille, France, accompanied by the French botanist Aimé Bonpland. The estate Humboldt had inherited from his mother enabled him to finance the expedition entirely out of his own pocket. Humboldt and Bonpland spent five years, from 1799 to 1804, in South America, Central America, and Mexico. They covered more than 6,000 miles (9,650 kilometers) on foot, on horseback, and in canoes. It was a life of great physical exertion and serious deprivation.

Starting from Caracas, Venezuela, they traveled south through grasslands and scrublands until they reached the banks of the Apure River, a tributary of the Orinoco. They continued their journey on the river by canoe as far as the Orinoco. Following its course and that of the Casiquiare River, they proved that the vast river systems of the Amazon and the Orinoco are connected by the Casiquiare. For three months Humboldt and Bonpland moved through dense tropical forests, tormented by clouds of mosquitoes and stifled by the humid heat. Their provisions were soon destroyed by insects and rain. The lack of food finally drove them to subsist on ground-up wild cocoa beans and river water.

Humboldt and Bonpland visited Cuba and then made an extensive exploration of the Andes. From Bogotá to Trujillo, Peru, they wandered over the Andean Highlands over a series of steep, rocky, and often very narrow paths. They climbed a number of peaks, including all the volcanoes around Quito. Humboldt climbed Chimborazo to a height of 19,286 feet (5,878 meters), but short of the summit. His ascent remained a world mountain-climbing record for nearly 30 years. All these achievements were carried out without the help of modern mountaineering equipment. Humboldt and Bonpland suffered badly from mountain sickness, but Humboldt turned his discomfort to advantage, by describing it scientifically. He became the first person to ascribe mountain sickness to the lack of oxygen at great elevations.

Humboldt also studied the oceanic current off the west coast of South America that was later named after him. It is now known as the Peru Current. In the last year of the expedition, Humboldt and Bonpland explored Mexico, gathering information on geography and geology as well as political, social, and economic conditions.

Humboldt and Bonpland returned with an immense amount of information. They brought back a collection of several thousand new plants as well as data on longitudes and latitudes, measurements of Earth’s geomagnetic field, and daily weather observations. Humboldt published 30 volumes containing the expedition’s scientific results. His weather data and maps helped lay the foundation for the science of comparative climatology. Other important studies included pioneering work on the relationship between a region’s geography and its plants and animals and on the role volcanoes play in the ongoing development of Earth’s crust. Humboldt’s volumes also contained an impassioned outcry against the enslavement of the Indians.

Darwin and other British naturalists

In the 18th century the British navy sent a series of expeditions to chart the coastlines of South America. Naturalists began to join these expeditions, which provided unique opportunities to study the natural histories of places little known to Western science. Early in his career, the distinguished naturalist Sir Joseph Banks sailed around the world under Capt. James Cook in 1768–71. The expedition traveled along the east coast of South America, rounded Cape Horn at the continent’s southern tip, and proceeded to Tahiti and Australia (seeAustralia and the Pacific Islands, exploration of). Throughout the voyage, Banks and the Swedish botanist Daniel Solander collected, drew, and described a great number plants and animals. They obtained specimens of hundreds of previously unknown species. Banks later became the long-time president of the British Royal Society.

The most famous naturalist to join a British naval expedition was Charles Darwin. The observations he made on his journey aboard the Beagle in 1831–36 were to form the basis of his great theory of evolution. The expedition charted the southern coasts of South America and sailed around the world. Darwin was given time for many side trips on land. He examined geologic formations and collected numerous plants, animals, and fossils.

Darwin’s main interest at the time was geology. However, his visit to the Galápagos Islands west of Ecuador aroused his interest in biology. He began to speculate about the curious animal life that varied from island to island. He wondered whether the development of these species was related to the isolation of the islands. He also considered the great diversity of the living things he saw on his travels around the world, even in the depths of the ocean where no humans could appreciate their beauty. He thought about how the fossils he collected suggested that some kinds of mammals had died out. And he returned home filled with questions. Back in England, Darwin quietly began work on what would become his theory of evolution by natural selection. He did not publish it until more than 20 years later, in 1859.

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By that time, another British naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, had independently developed a similar theory of evolution. Darwin developed his own theory in much greater detail, however. He also provided far more evidence for evolution and was mainly responsible for its acceptance.

Wallace and his naturalist friend Henry Walter Bates had traveled to Brazil in 1848 as self-employed specimen collectors. After several joint collecting ventures, the two young men amicably parted ways. Bates remained in the region for 11 years. He explored the entire valley of the Amazon River, where he collected about 14,712 species, including 8,000 previously unknown species. Most of these specimens were of insects.

Wallace spent four years traveling, collecting, mapping, drawing, and writing in unexplored regions of the Amazon River basin. He collected insects and birds and searched for clues to solve the mystery of the origin of plant and animal species. Disastrously, on his voyage home his ship went up in flames and sank. Nearly all his collections were lost, though he managed to save some of his notes.

Wallace made a second scientific voyage in 1854–62. This time he toured the Malay Archipelago of Southeast Asia. He traveled among the islands, collecting biological specimens for his own research and for sale. He also wrote scores of scientific articles. Among these were two extraordinary articles dealing with the origin of new species.

Naturalists continued to study Latin American flora and fauna throughout the 19th century. Biologists today still explore the region, particularly the Amazon Rainforest, which is the world’s richest and most varied reserve of living things.

The search for lost worlds

The 19th and 20th centuries saw the arrival in Latin America of a new kind of scientist—the archaeologist. Archaeologists began searching for the ruins of Indian civilizations of the past. They were especially motivated by tales of “lost worlds”—ruins of cities that had not been seen by Europeans since the Spanish conquest of the 16th century.

The American traveler John Lloyd Stephens generated interest in the archaeology of the region with his discoveries of Maya ruins. In 1839 he set off for Central America, after having heard reports of the existence of ancient ruins there. He was accompanied by the English illustrator and archaeologist Frederick Catherwood. Their progress to Copán, Honduras, was imperiled, first by local strife and then by the hazards and extreme hardships of travel through dense, dark jungle. Their perseverance was eventually rewarded, when they uncovered a magnificently carved Maya stone slab.

Other discoveries—more carved slabs, terraces, stairways, and walls with strange and fantastic ornamentation—came in quick succession. Catherwood produced superb drawings of the Maya remains they found there and elsewhere, including Uxmal and Palenque in Mexico. The report of the expedition caused a storm of popular and scholarly interest in the Maya.

Interest in the Inca grew because of the work of the American archaeologist Hiram Bingham. In July 1911 Bingham directed an expedition to Peru to find the ruins of Vilcabamba, known as the “lost city of the Inca.” From this city the last Inca rulers led a rebellion against Spanish rule. Prospects for locating Vilcabamba were poor. Clues from early chronicles of the Inca were scanty. The city was believed to be situated somewhere near the city of Cuzco, where the problems of crossing the Andes were great.

The expedition owed its success largely to Bingham’s steadfastness and courage. He visited several Inca sites, sometimes risking his life to do so. His most significant find came on July 24, when a local resident, Melchor Arteaga, led him to the great ruins of Machu Picchu. The ancient Inca structures of white granite are nearly intact. Among them are temples, palaces, and small houses at various levels connected by stone staircases. Surrounding the residential area are hundreds of stone terraces for farming. Bingham thought that Machu Picchu was Vilcabamba. Most modern scholars believe that an Inca site found in 1964 by Gene Savoy is more likely to be the “lost city.”

United States and Canada

European exploration of what are now the United States and Canada was carried out mainly by the Spanish, French, English, and Dutch as they each tried to expand their empires and secure greater wealth. As in Latin America, European exploration of this vast area accompanied its colonization. The region was ultimately colonized primarily by the English and the French. At first, however, England lagged far behind in its colonization efforts. France was occupied with wars in Europe and was initially not able to devote as much time or effort to overseas expansion as did Spain and Portugal.

Portugal primarily focused on expanding its colonial empire in Africa and Brazil. Though initially lagging behind the Portuguese in the arts of navigation and exploration, the Spanish quickly closed that gap. First in the Caribbean and then in spectacular conquests of Mexico and Peru, they captured the imagination and envy of the European world. In the 16th century Spain hoped to find further riches in what is now the United States.

Spain in the South and Southwest

Spanish expeditions set out from or stopped off at Spanish colonies in Mexico and the Caribbean. Approaching from the south, the Spaniards began exploring the southern and later western regions of what is now the United States. In 1524–25 a Portuguese sea captain named Estevão Gomes (or Esteban Gómez), serving the king of Spain, explored the coast of North America from Maine to New Jersey. His descriptions suggested that there was little mineral wealth there and led the Spaniards to consider this region far less valuable than the lands they had in the south. Thus they ignored the greater part of the eastern coast of North America.

The Portuguese made one important discovery in this northern region. In 1501 Gaspar Côrte-Real reached Newfoundland. His voyages were not repeated, for Portugal soon needed all of its resources to develop its East India empire and its colony in Brazil.

Ponce de León and the fountain of youth

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The first European known to have visited what is now the U.S. mainland was the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León. While serving as governor of eastern Hispaniola, he had heard persistent reports that there was gold to be found on Puerto Rico. In 1508–09 he explored and settled that island. He founded the colony’s oldest settlement, Caparra, near what is now San Juan.

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The Spanish king encouraged Ponce de León to continue searching for new lands. The explorer learned from Indians of an island called Bimini (in The Bahamas). On this island there was said to be a miraculous spring or fountain that kept those who drank from it perpetually young. In search of this “fountain of youth,” he led an expedition from Puerto Rico in March 1513. Although he never found the fabled fountain, he was the first European to encounter the ocean current known as the Gulf Stream. He was also the first to sight what is now Florida. In April he landed on Florida’s coast, near the site of what is today St. Augustine. He did not realize that he was on the mainland of North America but supposed that he had landed on an island.

Ponce de León claimed this land for Spain. He then coasted southward, sailing through the Florida Keys. He ended his search near Charlotte Harbor on Florida’s west coast. He returned to Florida in 1521 to build a settlement, but he was slain by Indians.

Narváez meets disaster

Additional Spanish expeditions to colonize the region followed. The king gave Spanish conquistador Panfilo de Narváez authorization to subdue and colonize vast lands from Florida westward. (Narváez had earlier led one of the armies sent to arrest Hernán Cortés in Mexico.) He sailed from Spain on June 17, 1527, with five ships and about 600 soldiers, sailors, and colonists. He began to suffer losses early on. In Santo Domingo 140 men deserted the expedition. In Cuba a hurricane sank two of the ships, killing 50 men and several horses.

Narváez remained in Cuba until late February 1528. He then sailed with five ships and 400 followers to the region around Tampa Bay in Florida. He sent the ships to the north and began an overland expedition in May with about 300 men. The force made a difficult and distressing march northward, continually fighting Indians. Near the end of July, the survivors reached the area around what is now St. Marks, in Florida’s panhandle region.

Narváez had expected to meet his ships on the coast, but they did not arrive. Instead, the expedition’s suffering survivors had to build five new ships themselves. In late September the 245 surviving men sailed along the coast, hoping to reach Mexico. The ships drifted along the northern part of the Gulf of Mexico, passing Pensacola Bay and the mouth of the Mississippi River. As the journey progressed, the ships were gradually lost. In about early November 1528 Narváez disappeared when his own vessel was suddenly blown out to sea.

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One of the vessels, commanded by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, reached the shore near what is now Galveston, Texas. There, he and his men met survivors of two of the other ships. Of all these men, only 15 were still alive by the following spring. Eventually only Cabeza de Vaca and three others remained. Among these few survivors was a slave named Estéban, who was the first black man known to have entered Florida.

In the following years Cabeza de Vaca and his companions spent much time among nomadic Indians. They became slaves of various Indian tribes for a time in order to obtain food. Cabeza de Vaca later reported that he had pretended to be a healer in order to receive better treatment and more food from the Indians. The survivors eventually crossed the Rio Grande River and turned south. Though they found only the gravest hardship and poverty during their wanderings, the men made their way back to Mexico in 1536, some eight years after they had set out.

Although only four men returned from the disastrous expedition, they had been among the first Europeans to see the mouth of the Mississippi River. They had also been the first to see the American bison (buffalo). The men returned with stories of rich Indian civilizations that supposedly existed somewhere in the north. There were said to be seven “cities of gold,” called the Seven Cities of Cíbola.

De Soto traverses the Mississippi

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In April 1538 Hernando de Soto set off to search for gold in the region. He and his men did not find riches, but they became the first Europeans to travel on the Mississippi River. De Soto is often credited with being the European discoverer of the river, though other explorers had already seen its mouth.

De Soto had earlier participated in the Spanish conquests of Central America and Peru. He sailed on this expedition from Spain in command of 10 ships and 700 men. After a brief stop in Cuba, the expedition landed in May 1539 on the coast of Florida. After spending the winter at a small Indian village, de Soto and his men traveled to the north and west. They passed through Georgia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee. Along the way they met many Indian tribes. De Soto forced the Indians to furnish supplies and tortured their chiefs in a useless effort to make them tell where gold was hidden. They also abducted Indians to serve as their guides. This brutality led to many battles.

Although de Soto and his men did not find gold, they obtained an assortment of pearls. They turned southward into Alabama and headed toward Mobile Bay, where they expected to meet their ships. However, at a fortified Indian town, a confederation of Indians attacked the Spaniards. The Indians were decimated. The Spanish were also severely crippled, losing most of their equipment and all their pearls.

After a month’s rest, de Soto decided to turn north again and head inland in search of treasure. This decision was to have disastrous results. Moving northwest through Alabama and then west through Mississippi, de Soto’s party was attacked relentlessly by Indians. On May 21, 1541, the Spaniards saw for the first time the Mississippi River, south of Memphis, Tenn. The explorers built boats and crossed the river. They then made their way through Arkansas and Louisiana. Everywhere de Soto searched, the Indians reported gold “just ahead” in order to escape his torture. After three years, he still had found no gold.

The expedition turned back to the Mississippi River early in 1542. Overcome by fever, de Soto died in Louisiana, and his comrades buried his body in the Mississippi. By this time, only about half of the original party remained. Luis de Moscoso led the expedition’s survivors down the Mississippi on rafts. They reached Mexico in 1543.

Coronado explores the Southwest

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Meanwhile, the Spanish leader of New Spain—which included Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean—had sent out an expedition in 1539. Its mission was to locate the wealthy Seven Cities of Cíbola. The expedition was led by Marcos de Niza (or Fray Marcos), a Franciscan priest. The expedition’s guide was Estéban, the black slave who had been shipwrecked with Cabeza de Vaca. The men journeyed northward from Mexico, across the desert to Arizona. Niza sent Estéban ahead to scout the area. He soon learned that Estéban had been killed by Indians. Niza continued on, until he reportedly saw the Seven Cities of Cíbola in the distance. He had perhaps actually seen towns of the Zuni Indians in New Mexico, which were small and poor. In any case, Niza did not visit the cities but returned to Mexico with tales of riches.

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Niza’s report of great wealth stirred interest in further exploration of the region. The leader of New Spain sent forth a large military expedition, led by Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, to conquer the fabled cities. Niza served as its guide. The expedition consisted of some 300 Spaniards, hundreds of Indian allies and Indian slaves, horses, and herds of sheep, pigs, and cattle. Two ships under the command of Hernando de Alarcón also sailed up the Gulf of California. This branch of the expedition discovered the mouth of the Colorado River.

The main force under Coronado departed in February 1540, traveling up the west coast of Mexico to Culiacán. A smaller unit rode north from there. The explorers encountered the Zuni towns but found no great wealth or treasure. Another scouting party, led by García López de Cárdenas, journeyed to the west. He and his men became the first Europeans to view the Grand Canyon of Arizona.

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The expedition spent the winter in the valley of the Rio Grande in New Mexico. New hope came from a Plains Indian slave, whom the Spaniards called “the Turk.” He told of a land to the northeast called Quivira that was very rich. With 30 men and the Turk as guide, Coronado set forth. After months they found Quivira in what is now central Kansas, but it held only Indian tepees, not gold. Coronado had the Turk executed.

The expedition returned to the Rio Grande. After wintering there, the men started homeward. The tattered army followed a route over deserts and mountains in blazing summer heat. In the fall of 1542 Coronado led only about 100 men into Mexico City. The remaining survivors trailed in during the next months. Coronado’s expensive expedition had failed to find cities of gold. He had, however, established the basis for Spain’s later claim to what is now the U.S. Southwest.

European discovery of California

In 1539 Francisco de Ulloa led a seaward expedition to find the fabled cities of gold. He sailed along the Pacific coast of Mexico and explored the Gulf of California. Sailing around Baja California (now part of Mexico), he proved that it is a peninsula, not an island as had been thought. According to some sources, Ulloa may have continued northward and sighted California.

The first European known to have reached California was Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo. It is not known for certain whether he was Spanish or Portuguese. In any event, he explored in the service of Spain. It is thought that Cabrillo embarked from the Mexican port of Navidad in June 1542. He explored most of the coast of California and entered San Diego and Monterey bays.

In 1579 the English navigator Sir Francis Drake sailed up the California coast beyond San Francisco Bay and claimed the land for England. He was leading the second expedition to sail around the world. Spain’s claim to California was strengthened in 1602 by the Spanish navigator Sebastián Vizcaíno, who charted the coast. He sailed from Mexico to the California coast, naming San Diego, Santa Catalina Island, Santa Barbara, and Monterey. He ultimately reached the Oregon coast.

The Spaniards did not launch many more expeditions to the region. Having found no cities of gold or other sources of great wealth, they did not care to explore further the disappointing lands north of Mexico. Spanish missionaries and settlers later established colonies in the areas already explored, in Florida, the Southwest, and California. However, most of Spain’s colonial efforts were concentrated on exploiting the great riches already found in Mexico and South America.

France, England, and Holland in the Northeast

While Spain explored the south, the French, English, and Dutch approached North America from the east. Europeans still wanted to find a commercial sea route westward to Asia. Numerous expeditions searched for the Northwest Passage, a sea route to Asia through northern North America. It took centuries of effort, however, to find this route, which leads from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean through the Arctic islands of Canada. The first person to sail through the passage was the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen in 1905. All the earlier expeditions met with failure, and many with disaster. They nevertheless made valuable explorations in what are now the northeastern United States and Canada. (See alsopolar exploration.)

Cabot reaches Canada

John Cabot’s search for a westward passage to Asia made him the first European to arrive in what is now Canada after the Vikings, centuries earlier. Cabot was an Italian explorer who sailed for England. (His name in Italian is Giovanni Caboto.) Shortly after Columbus first reached the New World, King Henry VII of England authorized Cabot and his sons to undertake a voyage to the west in search of unknown lands. The same king had earlier rejected a similar proposal by Columbus.

In 1496 Cabot left from Bristol, England, with one ship. He was soon forced to turn back, however, because of poor weather, a shortage of food, and disputes with his crew. In May 1497 he tried again. He set sail from Bristol in the small ship Matthew with a crew of 18 men. He proceeded around Ireland and then to the north and west, making landfall on the morning of June 24. The site of his landfall is believed to have been in what is now southern Labrador, Cape Breton Island, or Newfoundland, in eastern Canada. On going ashore, Cabot noticed signs that the area was inhabited, but he saw no people. He nevertheless took possession of the land for the English king. He then explored the coastline from the ship before returning with news of his discovery. Cabot arrived back in England on Aug. 6, 1497, believing that he had reached the northeast coast of Asia.

The following year Cabot set out on another voyage, probably with five ships and 200 men. This time he hoped to find Japan. Cabot was never seen again. Some evidence suggests that he may have reached North America, but he was probably lost at sea.

Cabot’s successful voyage helped lay the groundwork for the later English claim to Canada. He also demonstrated that it was possible to sail a short route across the North Atlantic. This would later prove important in the establishment of English colonies in North America. Moreover, Cabot discovered that the northwest Atlantic waters were teeming with fish. Soon Portuguese, Spanish, French, and English fishing crews braved the Atlantic crossing to fish in the waters of the Grand Banks, southeast of Newfoundland. Some fishers began to land on the coast of Newfoundland to dry their catch before returning to Europe. This fishing ushered in the initial period of contact between the Europeans and the Indians of northern North America. Although each was deeply suspicious of the other, they traded now and then in scattered locations.

Cartier finds the St. Lawrence River

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France soon began establishing its claim to northern North America. Spain and France were at war, and Francis I, king of France, wanted a share of the Asian trade to finance his armies. He sent the Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano west to find the passage to Asia. In 1524 Verrazzano touched the American coast at what is now North Carolina and then sailed north to Newfoundland. He made several discoveries on the voyage, including the sites of what are now New York Harbor, Block Island, and Narragansett Bay. Verrazzano’s report to the king contained the first description of the northeastern coast of North America. It also gave France its first claim to American lands by right of discovery.

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King Francis I of France decided to send another expedition to explore the northern lands in the hope of discovering gold, spices, and a passage to Asia. The explorer Jacques Cartier set off from France on April 20, 1534, with two ships and 61 men. He reached North America a few weeks later. Cartier traveled along the west coast of Newfoundland and discovered Prince Edward Island. He also explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence as far as Anticosti Island, claiming the shores of the gulf for the French king. He took two Indians with him on the journey back to France.

Francis I sent Cartier back the following year to explore further. Guided by the two Indians he had brought back, Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence River as far as what is now Quebec city. He established a base near an Iroquois Indian village and proceeded with a small party as far as the island of Montreal. Cartier was welcomed by the local Iroquois. He learned from them that two rivers led farther west to lands where gold, silver, copper, and spices abounded.

The severity of the winter came as a terrible shock. No Europeans since the Vikings had wintered that far north on the American continent. Scurvy claimed 25 of Cartier’s men. To make matters worse, the explorers earned the ill will of the Iroquois. In May, as soon as the river was free of ice, the explorers seized some of the Iroquois chiefs and sailed for France. Cartier was able to report only that great riches lay farther in the interior and that a great river possibly led to Asia.

War in Europe prevented Francis I from sending another expedition until 1541. Concerned about Spanish claims to the Americas, he commissioned a nobleman, Jean-François de La Rocque de Roberval, to establish a colony in the lands discovered by Cartier. Roberval led the expedition, and Cartier served under him. Cartier sailed first, arriving at what is now Quebec city on August 23. Roberval was delayed until the following year.

The winter at Cartier’s new base above Quebec proved as severe as the earlier one. He appears to have been unable to maintain discipline among his men, and their actions again aroused the hostility of the local Indians. But they found what appeared to be gold and diamonds in abundance. In the spring Cartier abandoned the base and sailed for France. On the way he stopped at Newfoundland. There he encountered Roberval, who ordered him back to Quebec. Cartier, however, stole away during the night and continued to France. There, his gold and diamonds were found to be worthless—they were really fool’s gold (pyrite) and quartz. “False as a Canadian diamond” became a common French expression. Roberval enjoyed no better success. After one winter he abandoned the plan to found a colony and returned to France.

French disappointment at these meager results was very great. France lost interest in these new lands for more than half a century. Nevertheless, Cartier had made the European discovery of the St. Lawrence River, which was later to become France’s great entranceway into North America. He also is credited with naming Canada, from the Huron-Iroquois word kanata, meaning a village or settlement. (Cartier used the name to refer only to the area around Quebec city.) Moreover, the French claim to the land remained; it had only to be made good by actual settlement.

England tries to set up colonies

After John Cabot’s early voyages, English explorers did not return to the New World until the late 16th century. In 1576–78 the English mariner Martin Frobisher undertook three voyages in search of the Northwest Passage to Asia. He explored Canada’s northeast coast and discovered the bay near Baffin Island that now bears his name. However, his single-minded pursuit of gold limited the exploratory value of his voyages.

Sir Humphrey Gilbert, an English soldier and navigator, wrote a paper about the Northwest Passage in 1566 that later inspired many explorers to search for the elusive route to Asia. He set sail on his own attempt on Nov. 19, 1578, with seven ships. He probably intended to cross to North America, but his ill-equipped, badly disciplined force quickly broke up. By the spring of 1579 some of the ships had drifted to England while others had turned to piracy.

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Gilbert later undertook a more ambitious attempt to establish an English colony in North America. He sailed from Plymouth, England, on June 11, 1583. On August 3 he arrived at what is now St. John’s, Newfoundland, which he claimed in the name of the queen. Sailing southward with three ships, he lost the largest of them on August 29. Two days later he turned homeward. Gilbert was last seen during a great storm in the Atlantic, shouting to his companion vessel, “We are as near heaven by sea as by land.” Gilbert’s ship was then swallowed by the sea.

With the failure of Gilbert’s voyage, the English turned to a new man, Sir Walter Raleigh, to advance England’s fortunes in the New World. They also tried a new strategy—taking a southern rather than a northern route to North America. Raleigh sponsored attempts in the 1580s to found a permanent colony off the coast of Virginia. Although his efforts finally failed with the mysterious destruction of the Roanoke Island colony in 1587, they awakened popular interest in a permanent colonizing venture. The English established their first permanent colony in the New World—Jamestown—in Virginia in 1607. The following year the French explorer Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec, France’s first permanent colony in the Americas.

Champlain founds Quebec

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French fishing fleets had continued to make almost yearly visits to the eastern shores of Canada. Chiefly as a sideline of the fishing industry, there continued an unorganized trade in furs. At home in Europe new methods of processing furs were developed, and beaver hats in particular grew very fashionable. Thus new encouragement was given to the fur trade in Canada.

In 1604 Pierre du Gua, sieur (lord) de Monts, received a French royal monopoly that gave him the exclusive right to this fur trade. That year he led his first colonizing expedition to Acadia, a region surrounding the Bay of Fundy on the eastern seaboard of Canada. Among the expedition’s lieutenants was Samuel de Champlain, who was a geographer and navigator as well as a soldier.

Champlain spent three winters in Acadia. During the first winter the settlers stayed on an island in the St. Croix River. Scurvy killed nearly half the party. The second and third winters, at Annapolis Basin, claimed the lives of fewer men. During the summers Champlain searched for an ideal site for colonization. He carried out a major exploration of the northeastern coastline of what is now the United States, journeying down the Atlantic coast southward to Massachusetts Bay and beyond. He mapped in detail the harbors that his English rivals had only touched.

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In 1608 Champlain was granted permission to undertake another expedition. He led a group of settlers to a site on the St. Lawrence River where they hoped to establish a center for controlling the fur trade. There he founded Quebec city and made friends of the Huron people of the region. In 1609 he went with the Huron to fight the Iroquois in New York. During this time he discovered Lake Champlain, which he named after himself. Not far from the lake he routed the Iroquois enemy with gunfire. Thereafter the Iroquois were bitter enemies of the French. Champlain later made several exploring trips in search of rivers that might lead to the Pacific Ocean. In 1615 he reached Georgian Bay and Lake Huron.

Hudson seeks a passage to Asia

The English explorer Henry Hudson tried to discover a short route from Europe to Asia by sailing both northwest and northeast through the Arctic Ocean. On his first two voyages, he searched for the Northeast Passage along northern Europe, but ice blocked his way. Both times he sailed for the English Muscovy Company.

Hudson undertook his third voyage in search of the Northeast Passage for the Dutch East India Company. He sailed from Holland in the Half Moon on April 6, 1609. When head winds and storms forced him to abandon his northeast voyage, he decided to instead seek the Northwest Passage. The ship reached eastern North America. While cruising along the Atlantic seaboard, Hudson entered a majestic river that Verrazzano had encountered in 1524. It was known from then on as the Hudson River. The expedition traveled up the river for about 150 miles (240 kilometers) to the vicinity of what is now Albany, N.Y. Hudson concluded that the river did not lead to the Pacific and began the return voyage. On his way to Holland, Hudson docked at Dartmouth, England. There the English government forbade him from undertaking any more explorations for other countries.

The British East India Company and other English merchants sponsored Hudson’s fourth and final voyage, to search for the Northwest Passage. This time he wanted to follow up on a report by the English explorer Capt. George Weymouth regarding a possible channel to the Pacific. Weymouth had described an inlet—now named Hudson Strait—where a “furious overfall” of water rushed out with every ebb tide. This phenomenon suggested that a great body of water lay beyond the strait. Hudson was confident that it was the Pacific Ocean.

Hudson sailed from London on April 17, 1610, in the 55-ton vessel Discovery. He proceeded to the “furious overfall,” between Baffin Island and what is now northern Quebec, Canada. Passing through the strait, he entered the large inland sea that is now named Hudson Bay. He followed the east coast southward, reaching James Bay. With no outlet to the Pacific Ocean to be found, Hudson cruised aimlessly until winter overtook him.

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In the close confinement of an Arctic winter, quarrels arose. Some crew members suspected that Hudson was secretly hoarding food for his favorites. On the homeward voyage, several of the crew rebelled. The mutineers seized Hudson, his son, and seven others, casting them adrift in Hudson Bay in a small open boat on June 22, 1611. The ringleaders and several other crew members never returned home, having been killed in a fight with Eskimos. Nothing more was ever heard of Hudson and his small party. His discoveries later formed the basis for the Dutch colonization of the Hudson River and for English claims to much of Canada.

Jolliet and Marquette travel the Mississippi

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The French colonial possessions in what are now Canada and the United States were known as New France. Much of New France was explored by fur traders, colonists, and especially Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries. The missionaries wanted to convert the Indians to Roman Catholicism. Most of the explorations were thus private undertakings. In 1672, however, the governor of New France sponsored an expedition to the Mississippi River. The explorers were to determine the direction of the river’s course and to find its mouth. The French hoped that the river emptied into the Pacific Ocean and would provide a passage to Asia. The expedition was led by Louis Jolliet, who had studied to be a Jesuit but worked as a fur trader. Jolliet’s traveling companion was Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit priest. Marquette knew several Indian languages and served as an interpreter. The small party also included five other men.

On May 17, 1673, the expedition set out in two birchbark canoes from what is now St. Ignace, Mich., for Green Bay, on Lake Michigan. The men then paddled up the Fox River in central Wisconsin and down the Wisconsin River. About a month later they entered the Mississippi River. The explorers traveled the great river’s upper course, pausing along the way to make notes, to hunt, and to glean scraps of information from local Indians. Marquette also preached to the Indians he met.

In July the explorers arrived at a Quapaw Indian village at the mouth of the Arkansas River, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) north of what is now Arkansas City, Ark. From personal observations and from the friendly Quapaw, they concluded that the Mississippi flowed south into the Gulf of Mexico and not the Pacific. The river’s mouth thus lay in the region held by the Spanish. Indians also warned that they would face hostile Indian tribes if they continued on the river. The party decided to return home, and they traveled back via the Illinois River and Green Bay.

In less than five months the expedition had traveled more than 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers). Although the explorers did not reach the mouth of the Mississippi, they reported the first accurate data on the river’s upper course. Jolliet’s maps and papers had been lost when his canoe tipped over. Fortunately, Marquette had described their journey in his journal, which has survived.

Jolliet later explored Hudson Bay, the coast of Labrador, and a number of Canadian rivers. In 1697 he was made the royal mapmaker of the waters of New France. Meanwhile, Marquette set out in 1674 to found a mission among the Illinois Indians. Caught by the winter, he and two companions camped near the site that later became Chicago. They thus became the first Europeans to live there. Marquette reached the Indians in the spring, but illness forced his return. While en route to St. Ignace, he died at the mouth of a river now known as Père Marquette.

La Salle reaches the river’s mouth

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Nine years after Jolliet and Marquette’s voyage down the Mississippi, another French explorer reached the river’s delta. René-Robert Cavelier, sieur (lord) de La Salle, was the first European to travel down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. He claimed the entire region watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries for King Louis XIV of France, naming it “Louisiana.”

La Salle was committed to expanding New France. In the winter of 1678–79 La Salle and his men built a fort at the Niagara River. There they built a 40-ton ship, the Griffon. La Salle’s lieutenant was Henri de Tonty, an Italian adventurer and a trusted ally. The Indians called Tonty the “man with the iron hand” because he had a metal claw at the end of one arm to replace a hand blown off in battle.

On Aug. 7, 1679, the expedition sailed for Green Bay on the Griffon. It was the first voyage ever made by a ship on the Great Lakes. The explorers reached Green Bay in September and sent the ship back laden with furs. It was never heard from again. Early in 1680 the explorers built Fort Crèvecoeur near what is now Peoria, Ill. From this fort La Salle sent Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan friar, with two companions to explore the upper Mississippi.

Leaving Tonty in charge of the new fort, La Salle made a trip to another French fort for supplies. On his return, he learned that the Iroquois had destroyed Fort Crèvecoeur, and Tonty and his men had vanished. La Salle traced them northward, meeting up with them in what is now Mackinaw City, Mich.

Early in 1682 La Salle and Tonty finally set out again for the Mississippi River. They canoed down the Illinois River and the Mississippi, reaching the Gulf of Mexico on April 9. La Salle claimed the Mississippi valley for France. Within a generation, the Mississippi became a vital link between French settlements along the Gulf of Mexico and in Canada.

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In 1684 La Salle made one more voyage to the Mississippi. He wanted to build fortified colonies at the river’s mouth and to conquer part of the Spanish province of Mexico. This expedition was doomed from the start. Vessels were lost by piracy and shipwreck, and sickness took a heavy toll of the colonists. Finally, a gross miscalculation brought the ships to Matagorda Bay in Texas, 500 miles (800 kilometers) west of their intended landfall. After several fruitless journeys in search of his lost Mississippi, La Salle was murdered by a few of his men near the Brazos River.

The West

Expeditions began pushing farther and farther to the west. In 1690 the English explorer Henry Kelsey led a two-year expedition westward in Canada to promote trade with the Indians. He traveled through what are now Manitoba and Saskatchewan, reaching the Saskatchewan River and beyond. He is believed to have been the first European to visit the Canadian prairies. Kelsey’s voyage was funded by the Hudson’s Bay Company. This English corporation controlled trade in the Hudson Bay region. It sent out explorers to expand its trade, and they eventually established numerous fur-trading stations scattered over the vast northern regions of Canada.

Routes to the Pacific

Starting in the 1730s, a family of French-Canadian explorers built a string of trading posts and broke the monopoly of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur (lord) de La Vérendrye, and his sons made a series of overland explorations far to the west of Lake Superior. Their travels carried them into what is now the western United States, perhaps as far as the foothills of the Rockies. They visited Lake Winnipeg and the Red, Assiniboine, and Saskatchewan rivers. They searched for an overland route to the “western sea.” The explorers did not reach the Pacific Ocean, but the posts they established strengthened, for a while, French claims in North America.

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Although explorers were not yet able to reach the Pacific by land, several seaward expeditions charted the Pacific coast. Cabrillo and Drake had done so in the 16th century. The Spanish navigator Juan Pérez explored the west coast of Vancouver Island in 1774. The following year Bruno Hezeta reached the Washington coast and claimed the area for Spain. Capt. James Cook of England charted the coast from Oregon to the Arctic in 1778.

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The first overland explorer to reach the Pacific Ocean was the Scottish-Canadian fur trader Alexander Mackenzie. In 1789 he followed the river that now bears his name from its source to the Arctic Ocean. Disappointed because he had not discovered a route to the Pacific, he set out on another expedition in 1792. After a strenuous journey over the most rugged terrain on the continent, Mackenzie and his companions at last crossed the Rocky Mountains to reach the Fraser River in 1793. From the Fraser they traveled on land to the Bella Coola River. The explorers canoed down the river until they sighted the long-sought “western sea,” in what is now British Columbia. Only a few weeks earlier Capt. George Vancouver of England had explored the same part of the Pacific coast by sea.

The English explorer David Thompson crossed the Canadian Rockies in 1807–11. He crossed the mountains by the Howse Pass and built the first trading post on the Columbia River. Thompson then became the first European to explore the Columbia River from its source to its mouth. His maps of western North America served as a basis for all subsequent ones.

The first major explorers of the West were not members of expeditions, however, but pioneers known as mountain men. The mountain men went to the Rocky Mountain region first as fur trappers to obtain beaver pelts. The most experienced trappers were the French, who were joined by American and Spanish fur traders. Mingling extensively with the Indians, the mountain men adopted many of their manners of life and their beliefs. As permanent settlers arrived, many mountain men served as scouts and guides, but their way of life was gradually eliminated by advancing civilization.

Lewis and Clark Expedition

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In 1803 the newly founded United States bought the entire western half of the Mississippi River basin from France. La Salle had claimed this land for France under the name “Louisiana,” so the transaction became known as the Louisiana Purchase. It doubled the size of the United States. For scientific, commercial, and political reasons, U.S. President Thomas Jefferson sent an expedition to explore the newly acquired land and to find a water route to the Pacific Ocean. He also wanted the explorers to make diplomatic contact with the Indians of the West and to expand the American fur trade.

Jefferson asked his personal secretary, Capt. Meriwether Lewis to lead the expedition. Lewis’ considerable frontier skills, military service, physical endurance, and intellectual prowess made him an excellent choice. Lewis invited his good friend William Clark to co-command the expedition, which became known as the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Like Lewis, Clark was familiar with the frontier and with some Indian groups through his service in the army. Lewis served as the expedition’s field scientist, making observations on the plants, animals, Indians, climate, soil, and geography of the land they traversed. He also gathered plant, animal, and mineral specimens to send back for further study. Clark served as the expedition’s principal waterman and mapmaker.

To prepare for the expedition, Lewis traveled to Philadelphia to study astronomy, botany, zoology, and medicine with some of the country’s brightest scientists and doctors. He also began recruiting men and purchasing equipment and supplies. He purchased a dog, a Newfoundland named Seaman, to accompany the expedition. Lewis supervised the construction of a 55-foot (17-meter) covered keelboat and secured smaller vessels. Meanwhile, Clark recruited men and oversaw their training that winter.

Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming/The Art Archive

The permanent exploring party—known as the Corps of Discovery—consisted of about 30 men, most of whom were soldiers. The party also included the part-Native American frontiersman George Drouillard and Clark’s African American slave, York. During the long journey, the expedition encountered large animal herds and ate well. They consumed about one buffalo, two elk, or four deer per day, supplemented by roots, berries, and fish. They named geographic locations after expedition members, peers, loved ones, and even their dog. The explorers suffered from dysentery, boils, tick bites, and injuries from prickly pear. However, only one man died during the expedition (apparently of appendicitis).

Along the way, the explorers held councils with the local Indians. The expedition staged military parades, handed out gifts, delivered speeches, promised trade, and requested intertribal peace. Most tribes welcomed trading opportunities and provided the expedition with food, knowledge, guides, and shelter.

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The explorers set off on May 14, 1804. They started up the Missouri River. The explorers covered about 10 to 20 miles (16 to 32 kilometers) a day, poling, pushing, and pulling their keelboat and dugout boats up the river. On August 3 they held their first council with Indians, the Oto and Missouri, at a place the explorers named Council Bluff. The site is near what is today Council Bluffs, Iowa. In late October the party reached the earth-lodge villages of the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians, near what is now Bismarck, N.D.

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Across the river from the Indian villages, the explorers built Fort Mandan and spent the winter. It was there that they hired Toussaint Charbonneau, a French interpreter, and his Shoshone Indian wife, Sacagawea, the sister of a Shoshone chief. While at Fort Mandan, Sacagawea gave birth to a baby boy. This did not stop her from participating in the group. She carried the child on her back for the rest of the trip. As a Shoshone interpreter she proved invaluable.

In the spring of 1805 the explorers sent the keelboat back to St. Louis with natural history specimens, including live magpies and a prairie dog. Meanwhile, they had built canoes. On April 7 the party continued up the Missouri. On April 26 the explorers passed the mouth of the Yellowstone, and on June 13 they reached the Great Falls of the Missouri. Carrying the laden canoes 18 miles (29 kilometers) around the falls caused a month’s delay. Their way was made even more difficult by broken terrain, prickly pear cactus, hailstorms, and numerous grizzly bears.

In mid-July the explorers launched the canoes above the falls. On the 25th the expedition reached Three Forks, where three rivers (the Madison, the Jefferson, and the Gallatin) join to form the Missouri. For some time the explorers had been within sight of the Rocky Mountains. Crossing them was to be the hardest part of the journey. The expedition decided to follow the Jefferson River, the fork that led westward toward the mountains.

On August 12 the group climbed to the top of the Continental Divide. They hoped to see the headwaters of the Columbia River close enough to let them carry their canoes and proceed downstream toward the Pacific. Instead they saw mountains stretching endlessly into the distance. The water route Jefferson had sent them to find did not exist.

They were now in the country of the Shoshone. Sacagawea eagerly watched for her people, but it was Lewis who found them. He met a Shoshone chief who turned out to be Sacagawea’s brother. The chief provided the party with horses and a guide, Old Toby, for the difficult crossing of the lofty Bitterroot Range.

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It took the Corps of Discovery most of September to cross the mountains. Hungry, sick, and exhausted, they reached a point on the Clearwater River where Nez Percé Indians helped them make dugout canoes. From there they were able to proceed by water, via the Clearwater and Snake rivers. They reached the Columbia River on October 16. They finally arrived at the Pacific Ocean in mid-November.

Fierce storms delayed their progress for nearly a month. The members voted on where to spend the winter, and even York and Sacagawea were allowed to cast votes. Near what is now Astoria, Ore., the party built Fort Clatsop. There they endured a wet, miserable winter by journal writing, drying meat, making salt, and traveling to see a beached whale.

The explorers hoped to encounter ships on the Pacific that could transport them home. They found none, however, and the party started back. After stealing a Clatsop Indian canoe, they headed up the Columbia River on March 23, 1806. They arrived at the Nez Percé villages, gathered up their horses, and waited for the snows to melt. They crossed the mountains in June with Nez Percé horses and guides. Beside the Bitterroot River the party divided into groups to learn more about the country.

Several groups floated down to the Great Falls. Clark headed for the Yellowstone River and followed it to the Missouri. Lewis and several men struck off toward the northeast to explore a branch of the Missouri. On this trip he had a skirmish with Indians that left two Blackfeet dead, the only such incident of the entire journey. Later, while out hunting, Lewis was accidentally shot by one of his own men. He recovered after the party was reunited and had stopped at the Mandan-Hidatsa villages. There they left Sacagawea and her family.

The Corps of Discovery reached St. Louis on Sept. 23, 1806. Their arrival caused great rejoicing, for they had been believed dead. They had been gone two years, four months, and nine days and had traveled nearly 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers).

North Wind Picture Archives/Alamy

Although Lewis and Clark were not the first non-Indians to explore the area, the expedition contributed important scientific and geographic knowledge of the West. Lewis, Clark, and several other members of the expedition had kept detailed journals. Lewis had identified 178 plants and 122 animals that were new to science. Clark’s maps of the West were the best available until the 1840s. Their trail to the Pacific also paved the way for future explorers and traders who sought to colonize the West.

Pike explores the Southwest

Courtesy of the Independence National Historical Park Collection, Philadelphia

While Lewis and Clark traveled to the Pacific Northwest, the U.S. Army officer Zebulon M. Pike tried to locate the source of the Mississippi River and explored new areas of the Southwest. In 1805 Pike led 20 men more than 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) in search of the Mississippi headwaters. They traveled both on foot and by boat from St. Louis, Mo., to Leech and Sandy lakes in northern Minnesota. Pike reported that Leech Lake was the river’s source. This was later proved incorrect.

Pike’s next major assignment was to explore the Southwest. His party departed in 1806 to explore the Red and Arkansas rivers and to obtain information about the adjacent Spanish territory in what is now New Mexico. Pike set up camp near what is now Pueblo, Colo. From there he led his party northwestward to the Rocky Mountains. At the Front Range of the Rockies, he discovered the peak now known as Pikes Peak. The explorers tried to climb the peak, but they were unsuccessful. Discouraged, they turned south and slowly made their way toward New Mexico. Spanish officials met and captured Pike and his party on the charge of illegal entry into New Mexico. They were taken across Texas to the Spanish-American border in Louisiana. On July 1, 1807, they were released. Pike wrote a report praising the Spanish Southwest that soon attracted American fur trappers, bison hunters, and traders into the area. (See alsoAmericas, colonization of the; Canada; United States history.)

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